As we were getting all our gear together and preparing for a photo session a couple weeks back, we noticed a visitor sitting on our back deck.  Actually I was watering my flowers and never even noticed the uninvited guest peering at me from 4 feet away.  When Brett yelled a minute later, I walked out to see this guy staring at me.

We have a hot tub on our back deck, and since we live on a hill we get some major wind gusts ripping through.  The previous owners decide when they put the hot tub in, to also put up a wind shield behind it made of plexy glass.  It does a great job of stopping the wind, but also does a great job of stopping birds.  (You would think with how filthy it is, they would see it!  I purposefully DO NOT clean it.) We realized after the bird sat there for a while that he most likely had hit the glass and was injured or stunned.

Brett started taking pictures and he kept getting closer, and closer, and closer. I quickly reminded him that those suckers are fast, and could jump up and claw his eyeball out if he wanted too. Then I went inside to look him up in the internet to see exactly what he was. He is a Hawk (Falcon’s I guess are endangered-I didn’t know). My kids see him flying around all the time, and earlier that same day they were outside doing hawk calls. Call me crazy, but I think this guy was swooping down to check things out.  Kinda creepy.  Kinda cool.

a hawk + a super-soaker gun = weird photo combo

Brett got this shot of him blinking….

So, we didn’t know what to do and he sat there like an hour and we had to leave for our shoot. We said that we would call the animal services if it was still there when we got back. Brett’s Mom was watching the kids while we were gone, and she said about 2 hours later that it just took off. We were happy he moved on.

Very interesting visitor indeed. Our first official animal photo shoot. :)

If you are one of the rare souls who reads what I write on posts before jumping to the photos, I am considering changing things up a bit. It has been brought to my attention that reading is not what you want FIRST on a photo blog, so usually “some” people (who will go unnamed :) skip the reading and go right to the photos. A suggestion was made to put the wording after the photos, so I am giving it a try. What do you think? If you have a sec, drop your thoughts in the comments box. Or you may have skipped this rambling all together if you are the type mentioned above! Anyhow, on to this post!

Family of 5!!

My favorite family shot.

I love how Jackson is turned around looking at his Mom and Dad.  :)  And his sister, with her arm propped up on his head!

Jackson, Kaitlyn, Samuel  :)

Samuel’s favorite thing to do was pick grass and throw it at me. Glad I suggested it!  It kept his attention :)

Jackson checking things out….

Pretty Kaitlyn.

Elizabeth and Marc  :)

Look at that mischievous face on Jackson!!

More GRASS throwing!!!

Later Jackson playing at the playground.  I love this angle Brett got.

And this too…he kept laying on the bridge and asking me to jump on it and he would go flying UP!!

My favorite.  Elizabeth your eyes are GORGEOUS.

Brett and I have tooo much fun at the playground.  We were running around and then we saw this mirror dome thingy and the reflection was making us laugh….we were like the CAMERA QUAD trying to keep up with these two little guys!!  :)

This family consists of Mom and Dad (Elizabeth and Marc) and their 3 children, Kaitlyn (12), Jackson (4), and Samuel (3). We met up at the park for some picture time which come to find out from Mom, it has been over 6 years since they have had a family photo. 6 YEARS!!!  Needless to say, she was REALLY wanting some photographs capturing them as a family. With 2 small active boys it was a bit tricky keeping things interesting enough, but all-in-all I think we managed to capture some good images of everyone.

Thanks to you guys for your patience and endurance!  I hope the images you get will be well worth it.  :)